Jim's views mainly of cameras and imaging, his big hobby and "investment strategy" -- with a bit of sports or random rants interspersed..

11.27.2015

BlackFriday decisions

Looking at the first wave of pre-Christmas deals was enough to make the call between the G7 and LX100.

Sales on both cameras are in play - and the G7 is still almost $100 less. Today's G7 Genuine Deal is an impressive one: $200 off + $100 store credit and bundle-now&savedeals all at once! So that's the current buying plan: silver G7 plus 14-42 II and maybe $50 more for the 25/1.7 'normal' lens bundle. The credit can go for a microphone ± spare battery or something else. For a similar price one can have a "$250 value" stereo microphone in lieu of $100 gift card, which is also a great deal.Sorry LX100 - the G7 price & features are too good to ignore.

Friday also featured a used-gear shop with lenses going for 30% off and a Lumix 45-175 was available. Two copies in fact, and thankgoodness: I tried to buy the black one but no purchase button appeared, and when I returned to the lens page it was gone - apparently it sold 10 seconds before I could reach it! So I selected the silver copy instead. It won't quite match the G7 silver-grey shade, I suspect, but I'll survive. A deal on the 7.5mm fisheye will expire Tuesday, so that will have to come later.

The G7 will go from 28-350mme stabilized in-lens, plus an adapter can let the Pentax lenses play on it out to 600mme with the Spiratone 300/5.6 and 800mm with the 400/6.3 Hanimar. The original plan was to buy 14-42, 45-175, 300 Tokina and 7.5 fish-eye, plus maybe a prime in the 14-20mm range; so far so good with the first two plus a 300mm in Pentax mount.

Speaking of Pentax the DAL 50-200wr arrived today. The K·50 is now weather sealed from 27-300mme and sensor-stabilized. This 50-200 seems sharper than previous copies and it's a nice tight fit; too bad it doesn't come in red! The silver band and lack of focus distance scale mark it as DAL and not DA.